Spanish H1 investment volumes top 2013 total

A higher volume of Spanish real estate changed hands in the first six months of 2014 than the total for the previous year, PropertyEU's Southern Europe Opportunity and Distressed Real Estate Briefing heard this week.

Click on the following link video highlights for 21 video highlights from the event.

One of the most striking aspects about the Spanish market, according to Adolfo Ramírez-Escudero, president of CBRE Spain, has been the change in terms of risk perception and volumes. 'In the first half of the year we are going to see €5 bn transacted and that is already more than last year,' he said.

'I think it is not only the amount but also the quality and the depth of the type of equity we are seeing. We are seeing many different strategies at the same time,' he added.

Aside from direct real estate, investors are very active in acquiring non-performing loan portfolios. 'Obviously apart from the very well-known Octopus and the Lone Star acquisition there's been probably 20 to 25 deals of different scales in this kind of transfer from banks to investors of this kind of non-performing loans,' Ramírez-Escudero said.

In another growing aspect of the market the new Spanish real estate investment trusts, or Socimi, are buying into value-add and core-plus opportunities. Asian buyers are also active. In June Chinese property and entertainment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group has bought one of Madrid's highest towers from lender Banco Santander for around €265 mln.

For more on this story and 20 other interviews from the event, click on the following link: video highlights.